it of
contradiction. And grain has also another meaning; the grain of this
table, the grain of your coat. Dyed in grain, means dyed into the
substance of the material, so that the dye can't be washed out. A
rogue in grain, means a man whose habit of cheating is fixed in his
mind: and it is difficult to determine which is the worst, a man who
has the wish, or a man who has the habit, of doing wrong. At first it
seems as if you were only asked which was the worst, to cheat in
selling grain, or in selling spirit; but the concealed meaning, makes
the question both sense and wit."

These detailed examples, we fear, may appear tiresome; but we knew
not how, without them, to explain ourselves fully. We should add, for
the consolation of those who admire wit, and we are amongst the number
ourselves, that it is much more likely that wit should be engrafted
upon judgment, than that judgment should be engrafted upon wit. The
boy whom we have just mentioned, who was so slow in comprehending the
nature of wit, was asked whether he could think of any answer that
Pope might have made to the officer who called him a note of
interrogation.

_S----._ "Is there any note which means _answer_?"

_Mr. ----._ "I don't know what you mean."

_S----._ "Any note which means answer, as - - - - like the note of
interrogation, which shows that a question is asked?"

_Mr. ----._ "No; but if there were, what then?"

_S----._ "Pope might have called the man that note."

S---- could not exactly explain his idea; somebody who was present
said, that if he had been in Pope's place, he would have called the
officer a note of admiration. S---- would have made this answer, if he
had been familiarly acquainted with the _name_ of the note of
admiration. His judgment taught him how to set about looking for a
proper answer; but it could not lead him to the exact place for want
of experience.

We hope that we have, in the chapter on books, fully explained the
danger of accustoming children to read what they do not understand.
Poetry, they cannot early comprehend; and even if they do understand
it, they cannot improve their reasoning faculty by poetic studies. The
analogies of poetry, and of reasoning, are very different. "The muse,"
says an excellent judge upon this subject, "would make but an
indifferent school-mistress." We include under the head poetry, all
books in which declamation and eloquence are substituted for
reasoning. We should accustom our